Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Month: November 2011

Sight Word Shuttle Runs…In Reverse!

November 30, 2011 / / 0 Comments

A while back, Ana made up a fun game we call Sight Word Shuttle Runs that not only helps the kids with learning new sight words, but also lets them burn up some energy. We just realized at dinner last night that we can play the game in reverse too.

The original game was to have the child look at a word, read it correctly, then run to a designated spot to pick up pennies, toy soldiers, stickers, or whatever else motivates your child.

The reverse game is to say the word to the child, then have them run to the designated spot to find the correct word written on an index card with a bunch of other words written on cards. If they bring back the right word, they get the motivational item to add to their pile. If not, they take the card back and try again.

Yet another fun twist to help build vocabulary is to begin a sentence and leave off the last word, having them run and pick out the word that makes the most sense to complete the sentence.

Pre-Pre-Turkey Day Link Dump

November 16, 2011 / / 0 Comments

What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear? – Some stuff to think about regarding your kids’ education. What will the world be like for the next two generations?

Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt – Not good.

Netflix’s New Tablet UI Does Not Solve Its Search Problems – Agree with this. When I have a movie selected, I should have options to search for more based on actors, directors, and community likes.

Wall Street Still Thinks Germany Is Bluffing

It’s not clear why investors should believe Germany is just bluffing. Could it be that American investors are so used to a central bank opting for easy money that they cannot conceive a truly hawkish Bundesbank? Or that since US politicians are so supportive of major banks the possibility of German politicians actually making a decision that could hurt the banking sector grievously seems impossible?

Markets are logical over the long term.

Social Power And The Coming Corporate Revolution – Don’t know if it’s coming…I think it’s here.

Google+ had a chance to compete with Facebook. Not anymore. – I read this and could not believe I see every single point here in the exact opposite light.

Unhappy 99%ers: Sell Your US Citizenship to Chinese Millionaires – Heh. I like it!

The Rage of the Almost-Elite – Is #OWS the “Haves” vs. the “Have Lots”?

Paper Street Soap Investment
Paper Street Soap Investment Property

Comparison of Roth IRAs and Your Current Residence

November 15, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Assumption: you bought your current residence as an investment with the intent of selling it for a profit at some point.

Paper Street Soap Investment
Paper Street Soap Investment Property

Similarities

  • Both are purchased with after tax money
  • No capital gains taxes due when the gains are realized
  • Not taxable as income when the gains are realized
  • No guaranteed rate of appreciation
Differences
  • Roth IRA has a $5k/year limit on how much you can invest, but your home doesn’t
  • You can’t touch the gains of your Roth without penalty until you are 59.5, but you can get the gains from your residence whenever you choose without penalty
  • While you aren’t guaranteed appreciation in either vehicle, if your home has a mortgage you are guaranteed a percentage of interest savings by paying down (investing) the principal early. True, you lessen the tax deduction on the interest, but does it really make sense to pay the bank $100 so that you don’t have to pay the gov’ment $25 anyway?
  • Any improvement-type investments you make into your home (for instance, a foreclosure that needed a lot of work) can be enjoyed by you immediately while you wait for the market to appreciate and can also help you sell quickly and for a higher price later on.
What am I missing here? I’m not a financial professional…just something I was thinking.

Sight Word Activity For Preschool Bird Unit

November 7, 2011 / / 1 Comment
Mama Bird With Her Word Eggs

Mama Bird With Her Word Eggs

We’re doing an animal unit in our co-op, so I thought I’d share an example of how you can incorporate a book and craft activity into the unit. Preschool and kindergarten kids love doing crafts, and it’s great when you can tie everything together to help them make connections.

Today we focused on birds all day, and we read “An Egg Is Quiet” in class. This is a really nice book I found at the library. It has great information on all types of eggs–bird eggs, reptile eggs (we learned about reptiles last week), insect eggs, fish eggs, and even dinosaur eggs. We learned about dinosaurs in our last school unit!

It’s full of illustrations of different types of eggs, which let us match pictures of eggs with pictures of birds, and some great vocabulary words like “shapely”, “clever”, and “texture”.

Page Full Of Eggs From "An Egg Is Quiet"

Page Full Of Eggs From "An Egg Is Quiet"

After we read the book, we made paper nests to hold “sight word eggs”. On each paper egg, we wrote a sight word on either side. The kids can go through the eggs like they would flash cards, and each time they recognize the word they get to put the egg into the nest. For the nests, we just glued the bottom of the nest onto the paper and left the top open so that the eggs could be placed inside.

As you can tell by the un-named species represented in the first photo, they also have fun coloring the birds. 🙂

Some of the kids in our co-op know many more sight words than others, but that’s ok. Each child gets his/her own set of eggs with the words they are currently working on.

The younger siblings (2 year olds) have been participating in school a lot this year, and they spend time each week making animal letters. For them, we changed the egg/nest activity a little bit. So far they’ve made it up to ‘H’. For them, the game is to match the lowercase letter on the egg with the jumbled capital letter on the page.

Bird Nest for Letter Identification
Bird Nest for Letter Identification
Capital and Lowercase Letter Matching

Capital and Lowercase Letter Matching

 

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